scathing

Probably for the same reason why a 350Z Track over there is AUD$40K whereas down here its $70K. Economies of scale. The turbo kits aren't manufactured in Australia, they're only engineered here. And considering, when they released them, the V35 wasn't available down here they only had access to the small number of 350Z customers in Australia, of which only a small percentage would fit this kit. Its cheaper for them to have manufactured and shipped LHD ones to America than down here. The reason why APS didn't sell their single turbo kit in Aus is because they felt your average 350Z customer didn't want a car that wasn't street legal (their ST doesn't have a cat). In the US the 350Z is priced at "boy racer" levels. Here, the kind of person who could afford a 350Z back in 2004 wouldn't want to get their car defected off the road because of their turbo kit. Which is why you can only get an APS TT from an APS dealer. In the US, where it was more relaxed, you could buy either kit and fit it yourself. APS has pretty much moved on from the FM platform, from my last conversation with Peter Luxon. Hopefully he develops a kit for the HR engine, but I wouldn't be surprised if they don't. As such, he's not particularly interested in Z33 or V35 owners.

I voted for the GT-R only because it should be quicker in all weather conditions.

I said that experienced doesn't automatically mean good, but most of the time its better than inexperienced. The perfect road driver is someone that has both skill and manners. Neither is absolutely dependent on age, but in the situation where a young driver has a lot of the former its my experience that they have little of the latter. Vice versa, old people tend to have more of the latter but less of the former. However, on balance, as a road user the latter is more important. It takes very little skill to pilot a vehicle without crashing it, but evidence shows that an obnoxious driver ends up causing or being involved in an accident. So yeah, its quite possible that a 70 year old is a better road driver than you...if you're a complete a$$hole behind the wheel on public roads. Remember, the topic is about the people holding road licenses and so that's what you're being measured on. If you want to talk about CAMS or ANDRA license holders, then yes being an absolute speed demon would make you better than some geriatric who'd have a heart attack if his speedo hit triple digits. In my experience, people who've only ever grown up driving sports cars tend to be rubbish behind the wheel. Having a car that handles well and makes good power usually ends up being a crutch. You don't need to learn how to drive skillfully if the car does most of the work. At the same time, all that performance goes straight to people's heads, and every day seems to be race day with the way they carve up traffic on the road. For the record, I learnt to drive in a shitbox. The thing had no power, and the suspension rolled like a boat. That also meant that, if I wanted to keep up I had to learn how to brake as late and as little as possible to maintain what speed I had. I couldn't just step on the gas on the straights to claw up distance, and my suspension and weight wasn't exactly MX5-like in being able to maintain a high turn-in and mid-corner pace. I'll bite. Its pretty much impossible to empirically measure you on a behaviour front. Its not like random road users are going to post up complimenting you on your driving, and I haven't seen any posts from you telling everyone what you've done on public roads. So, I'll leave that be. Anyway, on the skill front, what times are you running on the track or hillclimb course? I see your for sale 320awkW GT-R never went to the track, so if you can tell me what cars you drove (and roughly how tuned we're talking if they're not stock) that would also be useful information. If you are quicker than me on the track it just proves you're a more skilled driver, which isn't what I'm talking about. You're missing the point that the ability to get a car from A to B in the lowest possible time isn't the only factor in making you a "good" road driver, which is all you seem to be rabbiting on about. No, I'm not. I'm talking about dangerous and reckless driving. Speeding is a factor, that's all.

I think I will "spoil mum" by buying her a 1kg fire extinguisher with bonus fire blanket.

If you're not going to track it you should be OK, from an engine heat perspective. The V35 should be better than the Z33 as the big V35 grille isn't totally obscured by an intercooler, unlike the Z33. I know of some Z33s that have been daily driven with APS TT kits and cope in traffic. Your issue will be with intercooler performance, as a lot of the intercooler sits between the two lower front vents. If you have a look at APS' animated GIF: Very little of the intercooler has access to direct airflow. There's also not much room to run ducting from the stock vents to the intercooler core either.

If they knew how to drive appropriate to the conditions, it would "never have happened either". Does the learner test cover night driving? Wet weather driving? Motorway driving? Does it test winding roads as well as long straights? People can just as easily crash doing the speed limits and obeying the road rules. The government fobs off any other situation as "drive to the conditions", which is so vague that its meaningless. To someone with driving experience or good training, they would have a rough idea of how fast to go in a particular situation. For anyone who only knows what's in the road user's manual and the practical test, you may as well have spoken Martian. Aside from better braking and handling, they also go a lot faster......which means if they drive them according to their "stupid young phase" and it lets go, it lets go in a bigger way. Great handling is great, but if an experienced driver exceeds the limits of their new vehicle they slide off a corner at 80km/hr instead of 40. Human reaction doesn't change, and so by the time they react and even try to correct the car's gone a lot further. They'd also also need more runoff to come to an unassisted complete halt. You also don't get the same level of coverage as you do now. In the old days, you'd be lucky to hear about some random guys crashing out in the sticks if you lived in another city. These days, every local rag has its own web site that's accessible from anywhere on the planet. What's the likelihood that, when you were a new license holder, you had the ability easily find out that someone lost a cat in the middle of nowhere? Just because you never heard about it in the past doesn't mean it didn't happen.

How do you get experience without having time to do so? Of course age has everything to do with experience. "Experienced" doesn't mean "good", but that's not what you're saying. Busted for doing 40mph (65km/hr) over the speed limit. There's a time and a place for everything. No-one's disputing his skill, but there's more than skill to being a good driver. A part of that is behaviour, like not doing an excessively higher speed than other road users, which tends to go hand in hand with......wait for it.....age and experience. Some people never mature and their experience doesn't equal good roadcraft. However, proportionally, young drivers are over-represented in foolish behaviour. There's a reason why insurance companies hike up the premium for young drivers, and its not because they think kids fresh out of high school are so cashed up that they can milk them for more money than people who've held full time jobs for years.

Eastern Creek is, apparently, booked to capacity. Aside from track days, it also does driver training and product launches (as well as random other stuff like the occasional concert). The ARDC, who run the track, are looking at ways of improving the facilities: From a driver's perspective, I really like Eastern Creek's frequent gradient changes. As an ex Marshall and a spectator, I know its frustrating not to be able to see the whole track. Source: Cars Guide

It is heavier. Porsche has publicly stated that the 997T comes with a regular torque converted manual over a twin-clutch system due to its extra weight (20kg, off the top of my head, so that's probably wrong) for apparently "little extra gain" (although the GT-R's acceleration figures would beg to differ). We all know a regular auto is heavier than a manual so there's probably a good 50kg+ weight saving by going to a traditional manual. For the same reason people do random mods - so you can brag about it. Like the guys who cram Chev small blocks into anything from Minis to motorboats. There are a lot of dumb people out there, who want "different" and have no concept of the term "good".

A mate of mine had the HKS SC, and has now replaced it with the HKS ST. The SC pulled 235rwkW (approx) with the standard kit. The ST pulls about the same, but with an EBC and tuning is now making around 266rwkW at 9psi. A lot cheaper and more flexible than having to swap pulleys, as you will for the S/C if you want to adjust boost. Both the SC and ST run a half-width FMIC, which may limit you if you're chasing bigger numbers. On the plus side, its more responsive and it works "well enough" for the numbers he's currently making. The ST boosts earlier than the APS TT I drove, and since its a single and not twins it ramps up a little harder, so it feels cooler I think the $10K fitted cost is about right. He got it through BD4s.

Yeah, the Nissan 360. Motortrend has some coverage.

On the 350Z the 280rwkW is a safe, ADR compliant tune. However, as per the link the V35's front bar causes heating issues in comparison so your mileage may vary. From APS, brand new, the turn-key price with the APS catback for a 350Z is around $16K. As stated you need a different exhaust, or some custom made piping to make up the difference in length. That doesn't include the APS tall-boy plenum, which I would recommend. I also have no idea what's in that V35 fitting kit, or how much it costs. You'll also want to budget for a front bar with a bigger grille opening, and a new clutch / auto trans toughening. If you're running stock wheels and tyres, you'll need new ones. That that point the car will be streetable, but on the track you'll definitely need an oil cooler. You'd be best off trying to find a second hand one, if one comes up. I know of one or two guys that found it cheaper to buy it from the US and sea freight it down here.

Depending on when that is and what my situation is, I'd be interested in giving it a good home. I've been trying to work out how to afford a turbo Forester for a few months now.

Your budget is the limit. There are daily driven 400rwkW+ FM platform cars running around the US. You can pull around 300rwkW reliably on the stock internals. The stock fuel system (bar the injectors, which need to be replaced below 230rwkW) will flow to around 340rwkW....but you wouldn't want to do that anywhere but on a dyno. I think APS hit around 750rwhp with their 350Z "Extreme Kit" demo car with the appropriate supporting mods.

It'll be running Nismo competition heads and a wealth of other mods, but yeah it looks like the extra displacement has come from stroking. Its ugly, but it works. The aero kit actually does work. I'd hate to damage the rear bar, though, since it appears the guard widener is attached to it and the rear guard.

It looks practically like the Forester that Australia gets, which I really like. An STI version would be awesome.

Don't knock the RenaultSport Megane F1 R26. Its got stickers.

The Audi brand is actually considered desirable, unlike Nissan and Renault. And its not a Gallardo in new clothes. Originally the R8 was meant to use the Gallardo chassis and its own setup, but the engineers found that it didn't meet the practicality requirements for the R8 and so a bigger chassis was eventually made for it. There is some parts sharing, but not to the extent of the eleventy billion vehicles that VAG makes off the Golf's platform.

Quite a few of my mates road Zeals on their L's and P's. Good, sensible bike. The engine is torquey across most of its rev range, unlike the CBR 250RR which needs to be revved all the way to its 18000RPM redline to go anywhere. Its reasonably small and light, which is great if you're not big. The chassis is pretty benign, with very predictable handling. Does your state have L and P plater restrictions on bikes? That will also factor into your choices.

The final word on this PM-based SUV: Source Autoblog Hooray for sensibility!

http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/video/video_...html?vid=244892 Jay Leno thinks that the R35 is a car he can get "emotionally involved with". And its not like he hasn't owned a few cars in his day. No soul? I'd trust a guy who's lived with supercars, classics, daily drivers and motorbikes as long term propositions over journos whose livelihood depends on maintaining strong relationships with (certain) car manufacturers, and the prejudices of the people who vote about his opinion on cars with their dollars. The majority of Leno's audience won't stop watching The Tonight Show because of his opinions on certain cars. People can, and do, stop buying magazines based on the attitudes of the people who write articles for them.

I don't think Renault's brand cachet is any better than Nissan/Infiniti's. If you're talking about brand snobbery, someone in the market for an Aston Martin / Jaguar, Audi R8 or BMW M6 is going to turn their nose up at the idea of a French-coachworked Japanese car.

Having your permanent record saying that you killed someone would pretty much f**k you for life. That blows, man.

Dave Morley's various written articles are as opinonated, in an ocker way, to Clarkson. If we were talking pure print (like what Clarkson does for Top Gear Magazine / Driving Times then I'd be voting Morley as he'd be a perfect "Aussie Clarkson". However, after seeing him drive a trio of supercars on Great Ocean Road for The Car Show, he doesn't have the same engaging persona when it comes to video. It might be shyness in front of the camera since he's not done it before, but he lacks the confidence and engagement that Clarkson has on film, and they both have in print.

You should have called the LAC and reported some hoon in a V8 with illegally dark tints trying to street race in the area, and given them the plates. Did you ask him if he'd book the guy who provoked you if you did get gee'd up by them and street raced? If not, then why is it only one of the "street race" participants that gets booked or is it only because you're ethnic. If so, then ask him why he doesn't go and book himself to meet his quota.